DISCOURSE 






BE FORK THK 



SOCIETY OP THE SONS OF NEW ENGLAND 

OK THK 

CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA, 

ON THK 

HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT 

OK 

THEIR COUNTRY; 
BEING THEIR FIRST ANNIVERSARY. 

Delivered December 21, 1844, 

BY THEIR PRESIDENT, 

SAMUEL BRECK. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

JOriN C. CLAHK. PRTNTER, GO DOCK STREET. 
1845. 



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BEFORE THE 



SOCIETY OP THE SONS OF NEW ENGLAND 

OF THE 

CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA, 

ON THE 

HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT 

OF 

THEIR COUNTRY ; 
BEING THEIR FIRST ANNIVERSARY. 

Delivered December 21, 1844, 

BY THEIR PEESIDENT, 

SAMUEL BRECK. 



3 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

JOHN C. CLARK, TKINTER, GO DOCK STREET. 
1845. 



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CORRESPONDENCE. 

Philadelphia, Dec. 21, 1844. 
To THE Honourable Samuel Breck: 

Dear Sir, — At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the 
Society of the Sons of New England, Samuel H. Perkins, Esq. in the 
Chair, on motion of Mr. Chandler, it was 

" Resolved, That the thanks of thi» Society be presented to the 
Hon. Samuel Breck, for the eloquent Oration delivered this evening, 
on the occasion of our first anniversary; and that he be requested to 
furnish a copy thereof for publication." 

The undersigned have the honour to be a Committee of the Society 
to convey to you the above resolution and request ; and they trust 
that you will comply with the latter, that the pleasure enjoyed by 
your auditors, may be multiplied among many readers. 
Very respectfully, your ob't. serv'ts. 

JOSEPH R. CHANDLER, 
JNO. T. S. SULLIVAN. 

Mulberry Street, Dec. 31, 1844. 
Joseph R. Chandler, ) 
Jno. T. S. Sullivan, ) " 

Gentlemen, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of the 21st current, enclosing a resolution of the Executive 
Committee of the Society of the Sons of New England, requesting 
for publication a copy of the Oration delivered by me, on the even- 
ing of that day. 

I am bound to the Committee and to you, Gentlemen, by strong 
ties of gratitude, for this flattering compliment, conveyed in terras so 
kind and courteous. 

Aware of the fugitive character of periodical Orations, so often, 
like my own, unworthy of the expense of printing; and knowing that 
the funds of the Society are pledged to charitable purposes, I yield 
reluctantly to your request ; reserving to myself the supervision of 
the printing, and assuming the payment of the cost. The Committee 
will be thus relieved from trouble, and the Society be furnished with 
as many copies as it may want, without infringing upon its funds. 

Presuming that this arrangement will be acceptable to the Com- 
mittee, I shall prepare the manuscript for the press immediately. 
With cordial regard and respect, 

I am your friend and servant, 

SAMUEL BRECK. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 



Historical Orations, such as the one now offered to the pub- 
lic, under the auspices of the Society of the Sons of New England 
in the City and County of Philadelphia, can be nothing other than 
a condensation of annals long since known to the public. In the 
present case, my information of the first settlement of New Eng- 
land is derived from the numerous histories, contemporaneous and 
subsequent, with which that event is so richly supplied. And in fol- 
lowing them, while composing a work so ephemeral as this, I have 
often used, I think, the thoughts and words of the author, without 
stopping to note the authority. It is sufficient for me to state gene- 
rally, that I have consulted " Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrim 
Fathers," " Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts," " Thatcher's 
Plymouth," " Cotton Mather's various works," " Knowles' Life of 
Roger Williams," " History of Connecticut by a Gentleman of the 
Province, London Edition, 1781," " Hazard's State Papers," and 
some other writers. All the information I could compress into a 
few pages, for an hour's reading, is blended and narrated in my own 
way, without special acknowledgment to any one. 

Perhaps I have dwelt too long on the bitter and obstinate spirit of 
intolerance, which exercised so powerful an influence over the minds 
and hearts of our venerated ancestors. It led to conduct, harsh, I 
grant, yet susceptible of vindication. And it gradually wore away 
with our colonial dependence; and vanished entirely, when, by our 
independence, we had free commercial communication with foreign 
nations. The last celebration of the failure of the gunpowder plot, 
took place on the 5th of November, 1775, at Taunton in Massachu- 
setts. I was an eye witness, and have the most vivid and exact re- 
collection of the exhibition and procession. The Pope, in effigy, 
was seated in a car, with a representation of tlie devil at his feet. All 



til is was in token of the hatred borne by the people, even at that 
late day, to the Roman persuasion. A similar display had been 
a long established custom in Boston, of annual recurrence. Yet, so 
sudden was the change, after a few years' intercourse with the French 
army and navy, that a private mass was celebrated in Boston, in 
1788 ; and another in the most public manner the year following. 
As I had a personal knowledge of both cases, and think them suffi- 
ciently curious as historical events, to be related a little more in 
detail, I will state the facts here. 

On the 19th October, 1788, I received a note from the French 
Abbe de la Potiere, the original of which is now before me, and 
from which I make the following translation :* " I called in to 
say good-day, and to have the honour of inviting you to my first 
mass at Boston, which I mean to celebrate this morning at eleven 
o'clock, at the residence of Mr. Baury, late Captain in the French 
service, and whose house is at New Boston, near the dwelling of Mr. 
Price. I endeavoured to see you last Friday, but you were not at 
home. 

" Should the novelty, I will not say the devotion, of your mother 
and sisters, create an interest in favour of this ceremony, they will 
be received by Mr. and Mrs. Baury, and me, with great pleasure 
and satisfaction. There will be a number of people present. Be 
pleased to make my respects and my invitation acceptable to the 
ladies." 

That was, perhaps, the first mass ever tolerated in New England ; 
but it was comparatively secret. Whereas, on the following year, 
a celebration took place in the very heart of the town, and in the 

* Je passe un instant pour vous donner bien le bon jour, et avoir I'honneur 
de vous inviter ci ma premiere messe k Boston, que je vais celobrer ce matin 
a onze heures, dans la maison de M. Baury, ancien Capitaine au service de 
France, qui demeure New Boston, pr6s de chez M. Price. J'avois dejA 
clierchc ii vous voir Vendrcdi dernier, mais vous ctiez absent. 

Si la nouveautc, car je ne dirai pas la devotion, de Madame votrc m6rc ct 

de Mesdclles. vos sccurs, Ics intcresse en faveur de cette cerc'-monic, M. and 

Mde. Baury, et moi les y verront avcc beaucoup de plaisir et de satisfaction. 

II y k plusicurs personnes qui s'y rendront. Veuillez, s'il vous plait, lour fairo 

agreer tout de suite, mes respects, mon bon jour et mon invitation, ce 19 

Octobre, 1788. 

L'ABBE DE LA POTIERE. 

A Monsieur Breck. 



most public manner, as thus: I spent four years of my school days, 
at a college in France, under the administration of Benedictine 
monks; my connexion with them led me when at Paris, in 1787, 
on my return home, to pay a visit to the Superior of the Clerical 
Seminary of Saint Sulpice, in that city. I found there a New En- 
glandman, by the name of Thayer, who had been a Protestant 
clergyman, but who had changed to Romanism, and was then a 
sub-deacon, preparing for missionary labours, in his native land. 
The Superior, a kind and zealous priest, gave me his blessing when 
I took leave, and solicited my friendship for the Abbe Thayer, in 
case he should visit Boston. 

Soon after my arrival at that town, (for it had not reached city 
honours then,) the Abbe sent to my care several parcels of books, 
and in 1789, came himself. The period was a fortunate one for 
him, as he found the place crowded with well-educated French- 
men, driven there by the disturbances in St. Domingo. 

The Abbe, assisted by these strangers, took possession of a 
brick building in School street. It had been built in 1716, by the 
refugee Huguenots of France, and was then unoccupied and in 
ruins. They raised money enough to partition off a sacristy, or 
vestry room, repair the pulpit, erect an altar, and buy a dozen or 
two of benches, and with borrowed plate, opened the doors for 
the public celebration of mass. Not the smallest opposition took 
place ; neither was there a hostile remark from the press. Puritan 
jealousy and intolerance had wholly disappeared. Not a vestige of 
persecution remained; and thus was the Roman Catholic worship 
established in the broadest daylight, where a few years before the 
attempt would have jeoparded the lives of any who should have 
dared to undertake it. Thayer was succeeded by Mr. Marlingnon, 
and he by the celebrated Cheverus, subsequently Archbishop of 
Bourdeaux; and that mass was the initiation of Romanism into Bos- 
ton, and into New England. 



DISCOURSE, 

&c. &c. 



My dear Countrymen, and 

Gentlemen of the Society of the Sons of New England. 

We are assembled to review some of the events of our early 
history; to manifest a reverential duty to the memory of our 
pilgrim fathers; to consider, (as their descendants) a brief rep- 
resentation of the great measure of good, in religion, in mo- 
rals, in civil policy, in education, which they established in 
the land they bequeathed to us. 

What I am about to say, can be nothing more than an oft- 
told tale to this intelligent company; yet it may be pleasing, 
from time to time, to call to remembrance, the perils encoun- 
tered by the first settlers of New England; to bring them 
before us in imagination; to seem, with the mind's eye, to 
contemplate the intrepid leaders, Bradford, Winslow, Win- 
throp, and their brave companions; to renew our love for 
them; to thank them for converting the forest into pleasant 
fields; for giving scope to those beams of truth, which irradi- 
ated the wilderness they subdued; and for fixing just and 
equal laws, as the basis on which to raise up a people then 
unborn. In the progress of our narrative, we shall find much 
good matter, mixed up with some evil. The evil we may 
touch with indulgence, and let the good go in extenuation. 
It is oi human beings and human affairs, we are about to dis- 
course, and we may not in them expect to have every hour 
unclouded. A due proportion of shade, even if there be some 
deep shadows, give relief as well as truth to a picture. 

The labour of the parent stock, in acquiring and preparing 
the land of our home, for their remote offspring, their chil- 
dren's children, has left its fair fruit to be reaped by us. And 
may we not discern now, in the sons and daughters of New 

B 



10 

England, the good effects of that legacy? Do we not see, in 
the living progeny, cither for honour, prudence and enterprise 
in husiness; in shrewd and well directed industry; in the 
long list of their statesmen, philosophers, poets, liistorians and 
orators, an aggregate of high and useful qualifications, which 
constitute them a people, to whom is conceded with one voice, 
and a loud voice! the right to stand in distinguished promi- 
nence, as a component part of this great nation! 

For the history of the first pilgrim movements of the 
parent stock of this flourishing race, we must go back two 
hundred and forty years to the reign of James the First, 
which was a period of religious excitement, and during 
which an ecclesiastical tribunal was erected, for the pur- 
pose of coercing into obedience to the church of England, 
the multitude who were daily seceding therefrom. That 
tribunal made a fierce war upon individuals holding dis- 
senting opinions. It undertook to punish those who absented 
themselves from the established church on Sunday; to com- 
pel them to adopt the common prayer book; to subscribe to 
the 39 articles of religion, as ordained by the Anglican church; 
and to make them conform to all its rites and ceremonies. It 
sought out, with vexatious vigilance, those ministers, whom 
the dissenters called by the endearing name of "godly and 
zealous preachers." It was the great aim of James to silence 
them; and against them he issued fulminating proclamations; 
declaring in imperious terms, that he would have but one doc- 
trine, one discipline, one religion in substance and ceremony. 
" I design," said he, " to make the Puritans of this realm, con- 
form, or I will harass them and drive them out of the land, or 
perhaps do worse, for if tlicy will not be quiet, and show their 
obedience, I tell them that they deserve to be hanged. It is a 
sect that is not to be suffered in any well governed common- 
wealth. I had rather live like a hermit in the forest, than be 
king over such a people." He cautioned his son, Charles, to 
take heed of them: " for they are," he said, " the veriest pests 
amongst us; and, I protest, before the great God, ye shall 
never find, in any highland or border thieves, greater ingrali- 



11 

tude and more lies and vile perjury, than with these fanatic 
spirits." 

The enraged monarch, in order to suit the action to the 
word, caused 300 doubting presbyters to be ejected, silenced, 
suspended, imprisoned, or driven into exile. A general alarm 
followed, and occasioned the formation of dissenting congrega- 
tions, in Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire. From 
that section of country came the Plymouth pilgrims. At 
their head was the Reverend John Robinson; a clergyman of 
learning, firmness and polished manners. Under his spiritual 
guidance, a number of dissenting families determined to leave 
England. They took secret measures to pass over to Hol- 
land, where was freedom of religion for all men. So broad, 
indeed, was toleration in the Low Countries, that the high 
church party in England, called Amsterdam, " a cage for un- 
clean birds, where all strange religionists flocked together." 
The Dutch were apostrophized by them, in the slang of those 
days, as " a hodge-podge, mingle-mangle people, whose tolera- 
tion brought about irreligion, and the destruction of the church 
of Christ." 

To enjoy the freedom of that country, was the wish of the 
separatists, under Mr. Robinson. After converting their little 
property into money, they bade an afflictive adieu to their 
humble homes, and escaped through dangers and difficulties, 
resembling the fictions of romance, the vigilance of the go- 
vernment, which, with strange inconsistency, now sought to 
frustrate the departure of those, whom a little before, it had 
threatened with expulsion. The same short-sighted policy 
prevailed a few years later, when the despotic Star-Chamber 
arrested, by one of its arbitrary decrees, the departure of a 
vessel, bound to New England, having on board Cromwell 
and Hampden, forgetting the maxim of building a bridge of 
gold, for the retreat of an enemy. Thus man proposes, and 
God disposes. Having at length re-assembled at the city of 
Leyden in Holland, they took up their abode there for twelve 
years; supporting their families, by mechanic labour. During 
that long period, their conduct was so irreproachable, that the 



12 

city magistrates said of Ihcm in public court: — " These En- 
glish have lived amongst us for twelve years; and yet we 
never had a suit or accusation against any of them." 

And how could it be otherwise? Moved in all their 
actions, by a devotion to the pure Word of God, it was their 
constant aim, — it was in the true spirit of their religion ; (a 
religion purified, as they thought, from all human corruption,) 
to show their sincere obedience to it, by a worldly conduct 
of strict uprightness. Though living among men, " their 
hearts were in the skies," — their thoughts enwrapt in holy 
contemplations! Could such a community do otherwise, than 
direct their minds and actions, here on earth, into a moral 
course? 

Although they were tolerably comfortable at Leyden, yet the 
laws of the Dutch, in reference to religion, were too liberal; 
for they seemed, in their eyes, to be nothing short of wicked 
licentiousness. For example, shops were allowed to be kept 
open on the Sabbath, while the usual week-day labour was 
going on. Some of their children too, had run into courses 
of dissoluteness. Many other things gave dissatisfaction, and 
prompted them to look out for another residence. 

Resolved to gratify their wish for seclusion, they prepared 
themselves for a removal to the unknown and distant land of 
America, then a wide-spread wilderness. Time will not 
allow me to dwell upon the affectionate farewell that took 
place at the moment of separation; when those who were to 
emigrate as pioneers, bade adieu to their friends who remained 
in Holland, with the intention of following soon. The touch- 
ing event of the embarkation of the pilgrims at Delft, has 
been made the subject of a historical picture of great merit 
and beauty, graphically portraying the chief men and women 
of that brave company, and painted by Weir, for the na- 
tional gallery, where it may be seen in the RoJ;unda at Wash- 
ington. 

We may be sure that those pious people did not leave their 
associates without suitable religious preparation. The last 
day they were together, was spent in solemn humiliation and 



13 

prayer, followed by a sermon from their excellent minister, 
of which I give here, the very appropriate text, taken from 
the 8th chapter of Ezra, and 21st verse: "Tlien I proclaimed 
a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict our- 
selves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and 
for our little ones, and for all our substance/' 

Their destination, when about to leave Holland, had been a 
matter of long and earnest discussion. Some, and none of 
the meanest, had thoughts of Guiana, where the country was 
rich, fruitful, blessed with perpetual spring, and where vigor- 
ous nature brought forth all things in abundance, without 
great labour, or need of much clothing. Others were for 
Virginia. But at length all negotiation failing in London, 
where they obtained from government no other aid than a 
promise from the king, that he would connive at their de- 
parture, they embarked at Delft for England. On arriving at 
Southampton, they found a ship of one hundred and eighty 
tons, called the Mayfloiuer, in which they took passage, and 
set sail, accompanied by a smaller vessel. But after getting 
forward three hundred miles, they were twice forced back to 
Plymouth, by the unseaworthiness of the smaller craft, which 
they finally left behind; and resuming their voyage in the 
Mayflower alone, with their number reduced to one hundred 
passengers, they reached Cape Cod in sixty days, on the 10th 
of November, 1620. 

This was a last — a permanent severance from their native 
land. They confessed themselves well weaned from the 
delicate milk of their mother country, and well inured to the 
difficulties of banishment. They were a people, they said, 
" for the body of them, industrious and frugal as any in the 
world; and knit together in a most strict and sacred bond, 
and covenant of the Lord, and held themselves strongly tied 
to give in all cases whatever, most immediate, effective and 
mutual aid. Nor is it small things that can discourage us, or 
small discontentment that can make us wish ourselves at home 
again." Yet Ihey left behind them both in England and Hol- 
land, numerous Christian frieiuls, for whose absence, tears 



14 

were freely to flow, from their poor cottages in the wilder- 
ness, overshadowed by the spirit of supplication. 

The destination of the pilgrims, when they sailed, was 
Hudson's river, which they supposed to be situated a few 
leagues south of Cape Cod; but the vessel being in bad con- 
dition, and baffled by head winds, on attempting to weather 
that Cape, they concluded on the 10th of November, to steer 
for a harbour in the peninsula before them. 

A distinguished gentleman of Massachusetts,* when at a 
celebration at Barnstable, in the neighbourhood of thil very 
harbour, alludes to the arrival of the Mayflower, in the fol- 
lowing strain: "Let us," he says, "go up in imagination to 
yonder hill, and look out upon the November scene. That 
single dark spot, just discernible through the perspective 
glass, on the waste of waters, is the fated vessel. The storm 
moans through her tattered canvas, as she creeps almost sink- 
ing, to her anchorage. And there she lies, with all her trea- 
sures, not of silver or gold, but of courage, of patience, of zeal, 
of high spiritual daring. We see her freighted with the des- 
tinies of a continent, approaching the shore precisely where 
the broad sweep of the headland presents almost the only 
point at which, for hundreds of miles, she could with any 
ease have made a harbour; and this, perhaps, the very best on 
the sea-board: in considering this incident, I feel my spirit 
raised above the sphere of mere agencies. Yes, God himself 
would seem to stretch an arm of mercy, to gather the meek 
company of his worshippers,' as in the hollow of his hand." 

But the dangers of the seas ended, think but a moment of 
their forlorn condition. No friends to welcome them; no 
houses, much less towns, to afibrd them succour. The winter 
season had arrived, and sharp frosts and violent storms were 
of daily occurrence. If tliey looked behind them, thei^e was 
the ocean, lying as a gulf to separate them from the civilized 
world; while, on board their weather-beaten barque, an im- 
patient captain was urging them to land, with murmurs from 
some of the crew, that if they did not get a place soon, they 

* Honourable Edward Everett. 



io 

would turn them and their goods on shore, and leave them to 
their fate. A whole month passed in indecision and fruitless 
surveys, before they found a place suitable for a settlement. 
At length, on the 11th of December, Old Style, corresponding 
with the 22d of our present calendar, they landed on ihe far- 
famed rock! a day ever memorable in our annals, as re- 
cording the exact period, when our forefathers arrived at their 
home in New England. The place on which they first step- 
ped ashore, is satisfactorily ascertained, by unquestionable 
tradition; and is designated as a large rock, at the foot of a 
cliff, near the termination of North street, leading to the 
water. A brave woman, one of the passengers in the May- 
flower, named Mary Chilton, determined to be the first to 
step upon the rock. Those in the boat, willing to indulge 
her, made room, and enabled her to establish her claim. 

That day was the birth-day of New England. It is its an- 
niversary that we are met to reverence. It has been the 
object of successive celebrations for more than two centuries, 
by the endearing name of forefathers' day. Such days arc 
the registers, the chronicles of the age they were made in, and 
speak the truth of history. I will stop a moment to say a few 
words more about this rock of historic renown. 

In the year 1741, Elder Faunce, then aged ninety-five, 
became desirous to consecrate it. He was conveyed in a chair 
to the sea-side, surrounded by the inhabitants of Plymouth. 
He blessed it, and in tears bade it farewell. He had, on pre- 
vious years, when less overcome by age, placed his children 
and grand-children upon it, to teach them to feel for, and affec- 
tionately remember their pilgrim fathers. 

In the year 1774, several tons of that rock were removed 
in one piece, to the front of the Pilgrim Hall at Plymouth, 
and enclosed by an iron railing, where it is regarded by visi- 
ters, as a precious memorial. Dc Tocqueville, a distinguished 
Frenchman, who travelled lately in the United States, notices 
this rock, as having become an object of veneration among us. 
" I have seen," he says, " bits of it carefully preserved in seve- 
ral towns of the Union. Does not this sufficiently show," he 



16 

asks, " that all human power and greatness dwells in the soul 
of man? Here is a stone, which the feet of a few outcasts 
pressed for an instant, and this stone becomes famous, it is 
treasured by a great nation; its fragments are revered, and its 
dust sought for in distant regions. And what has become of 
the gates of a thousand palaces?" Mr. De Tocquevillc, answers 
that question, by exclaiming, "Who cares for them!" 

While on board the JNIayflower, and in sight of their future 
home, the pilgrims entered into a compact (the parent of all 
American constitutions, and republican in its provisions). It 
is an instrument of a dozen lines, which combines into a body 
politic, some fifty men, who signed it; and purports to be for 
the better ordering, preservation and furtherance of the settle- 
ment of the colony, with power to frame just and equal laws. 
John Carver was elected their first governor. 

Before they entered upon further proceedings, or prepared 
to leave their ship, they fell upon their knees, and blessed the 
God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and fu- 
rious ocean, and delivered them from all its perils. And amid 
the new difficulties, " on firm and stable earth," with which 
they were threatened, they asked in their fervent prayer, to 
be sustained, by the spirit and grace of that merciful God. 
Gentlemen, we are the children of those pious fathers. It 
belongs to us, as such, to confess before the Lord his loving 
kindness, and wonderful mercy to them, and to prostrate our- 
selves in humble gratitude for their deliverance and happy 
settlement; remembering always, that among " the reasons 
and causes" of their removal to this distant land, was the great 
hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good founda- 
tion, for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the king- 
dom of Christ in these remote parts of the world; or at least 
of placing themselves as stepping stones unto others, for per- 
forming so great a work. 

Those worthy progenitors were now at the end of a voyage 
which had for its object tlie discovery of a spot on which to 
isolate themselves from the eye of the old world. Here was 
a place sufficiently sequestered to gratify their utmost wish. 



17 

Here they found not only an unpeopled country, but a soil of 
adequate fertility and other concomitance, suited to the undis- 
turbed enjoyment of their religious tenets. Disliking toleration, 
they had here in the wilderness, no fear of contradiction. And 
here too, their high attainments in spiritual knowledge could 
be securely transmitted to their children. 

Free then to do as they chose in this new world, they took 
the holy gospel for the rule of their lives, for the fountain of 
their happiness on earth, and expectations in heaven. 

On enumerating the families, they were found to amount to 
nineteen. To accommodate them as well as could be done in 
midwinter, a dozen huts were put up on a street, which they 
called Ley den, in kind remembrance of their residence in Hol- 
land; as the town received the name of Plymouth, in com- 
pliment to the last city they sailed from. Rough logs, plas- 
tered inside and out with mud, and a thatched roof, constituted 
those miserable dwellings. Into them were removed, after 
three months' confinement on board a small ship, the poor dis- 
tressed strangers. Enfeebled, diseased, but not discouraged, 
they assisted, nursed and cherished each other, with mutual 
good offices. But the keen anguish of body, in that desolate 
forest, destitute of all alleviating means, consigned in less tlian 
three months, more than one half their number to the grave! 
By the 21st of March, they had lost upwards of fifty, includ- 
ing their lately elected governor and his wife. 

Providence tempered, nevertheless, the usual severity of 
the north winds, and gave them a moderate winter. Had it 
been otherwise, the whole colony must have perished. As it 
was, eleven men only were left, of whom, while the sickness 
lasted, scarcely six were able to work. 

All the early writers on New England agree, and the fact 
is indubitable, that three or four years before the arrival of the 
Mayflower, a deadly pestilence had raged along the sea-board, 
from the Penobscot to Narraganset bay, and swept away whole 
tribes. The band of savages called Massachusells, was re- 
duced by it to a few warriors; and those Indians, once con- 
sidered cruel and treacherous, had become tame, kind, sub- 
c 



18 

missive and trusty, as if corrected by that chastening visita- 
tion. Not one in twenty had survived it; leaving those who 
escaped, with courage much abated, countenances dejected, and 
looking like a people affrighted. In the great patent, granted 
by King James to the Plymouth Company of London, the de- 
solating effects of this plague are assigned by him, as a reason 
for bestowing upon it that section of country. He averred in 
that instrument, " that the appointed time had come, in which 
Almighty God in his great goodness and bounty towards him 
and his people, hath thought fit that these large and goodly 
territories, left vacant, as it were, by their natural inhabitants, 
should be possessed and enjoyed by such of my subjects, as 
shall by his heavenly mercy and favour, and by his powerful 
arm, be directed and conducted thither." The coast was, 
therefore, clear for the emigrants. The right of soil seemed 
to belong to no one, while the adjacent tribes, enfeebled in 
numbers and in courage, stood aloof. At this juncture, an In- 
dian came in among them; the very first one they had com- 
munication with. He was entirely naked, and walked boldly 
to the principal building, and saluted its occupants in their 
own language, crying out " welcome Englishmen." He had 
picked up a little English at a trading post in Acadia, and 
told them that the place they occupied was called Patuxet, 
and sometimes Accomack; that four years before, all the na- 
tives had died, so that there was neither man, woman, nor 
child left to claim the territory. He served imperfectly, as 
an interpreter in their future Intercourse with the chief sachem 
Massasoit; a chief at the head of a tribe, whose location was 
near Bristol, in Rhode Island, With Massasoit, a good and 
faithful Indian friend, a treaty was made, which continued in- 
violate until his death. 

In three years the town had grown to thirty-two dwellings, 
containing one hundred and eighty persons. This accession 
of people arose from the arrival of their friends from Leyden; 
transported at the expense of the poor pioneer pilgrims, who 
put themselves to great inconvenience, in order to raise five 
hundred pounds, for the puipose of reuniting their church. 



19 

Most encouraging letters were sent to England in the spring 
of 1621, describing the country as overflowing with the na- 
tive products of the soil, abounding in rivers, bays, and 
forests, and with animal food. " Better grain cannot be than 
the Indian corn," says a writer of that date, " if we will plant 
it upon as good ground, as a man need desire. We are all free- 
holders, the rent-day doth not trouble us. Our company are 
for the most part very religious, honest people; the word of 
God sincerely taught us every Sabbath; so that I know not 
any thing a contented mind can here want. I desire your 
friendly care to send my wife and children to me, where I 
wish all the friends I have in England." 

But time does not allow of further development. The colo- 
ny of Plymouth although thus securely located, was destined 
to encounter much adverse fortune; and its after career is full 
of interest; yet matters of higher importance, movements on 
a wider field, embracing the history, manners and laws of 
much the larger portion of the early settlers, claim what share 
of attention we may be able to give in our rapid survey. 

We proceed, therefore, to consider the arrival and settle- 
ment of a second band of forefathers, whose course partakes 
largely of the same romantic adventures as that of the pilgrims; 
for they too, were in search of a spot, on which to erect an 
independent church, which should stand beyond the reach of 
all earthly supervision, other than their own. 

The emigrants to whom I allude, seeing their brethren safely 
established in America, prepared to follow them, in 1627. 
Calvinistic in their persuasion, and suffering severely under 
religious restrictions, they were constantly obnoxious to per- 
secution at home. 

"Why should we," they asked themselves, "remain starv- 
ing in England, in want of places of habitation, and victims of 
church tyranny, while whole countries, profitable to man, lie 
waste, inviting improvement?" This church tyranny or per- 
secution, as they called it, may be somewhat qualified. Pro- 
testant Episcopacy, herself a martyr-church, under Mary, the 
wife of the inexorable Philip of Spain, was now, in the reign 



20 

of Charles the First, the slate establishment, and the spiritual 
mother of tlie Christian family in England. As such, she 
aimed by salutary discipline, to restrain her children from de- 
sertion; to punish tlieir disobedience, and bring them back to 
their duty. But her forms and ceremonies, so essential, as 
she believed, to the dignity and good order of worship, were 
held in abhorrence by those who sought to separate from her. 
They repudiated, with equal dislike, Episcopacy and Priest- 
hood, although of Apostolic derivation; and even denounced 
the Book of Common Prayer; that epitome of the two holy 
testaments; embodying in its select condensation the very 
essence of both. 

Viewing these matters in this unfavourable light, and ac- 
tuated by honesty of purpose, by great sincerity and piety, 
they combined in numbers, to quit their country forever. In 
this temper of mind, they describe the men and manners of 
that day, in ardent terms of reproach. The church, they re- 
present, as in a state of desolation, while the people' of Eng- 
land, are called vile and base, intemperate in every excess of 
riot, and profligate spendthrifts, living by deceit and unrigh- 
teousness. The schools of learning and religion corrupt, and 
full of evil examples and licentious behaviour. 

Stimulated by a strong desire to withdraw from so wicked 
a community, Higginson and Skelton, two zealous leaders, 
brought to America a large colony and founded the town of 
Salem. Their associations were of a strict religious character, 
covenanting to follow the bitle, and to cleave unto the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and to him alone for life and glory; to bear and 
forbear with each other in watchfulness and tenderness; giving 
and forgiving, as the scriptures direct. To avoid idleness as 
the bane of life, and to teach their children and servants the 
knowledge of God, and his will. With the same entire devo- 
tion to their form of worship, as their precursors of Plymouth, 
they emigrated, like them, to secure freedom of thought; to 
avoid antagonistic persuasions, as well as state persecution. 
Strengthened in their adventurous transplantation, by the en- 
couragement of the holy book, their only book of laws, they 



21 

came hither, with a firm determination, which they carried 
out literally and with godly sincerity, of exercising their own 
religious opinions, without permitting the obtrusion among 
them of adverse doctrines. In reference to all other sects, 
they were querulous and intolerant. These were the first who 
planted churches in Massachusetts, in connexion v>^ith a large, 
rich, and equally pious party, under John Winthrop, who fol- 
lowed that same year. Governor Winthrop was a man of 
superior wisdom and virtue, highly accomplished, and wor- 
thy of the great name he bears with after generations, even 
down to our own time. With him came Dudley, scarcely his 
inferior in ability and fame. Several individuals of note, both 
lay and ecclesiastical, were associated with them. But Win- 
throp stood pre-eminent; they called him their Moses, adding 
that nothing short of a Mosaic spirit could have carried him 
through the temptations, to which either his farewell to his 
own land, or his voyage to a wild land, must needs have ex- 
posed a gentleman of his education. He had, indeed, made 
great sacrifices, and relinquished the comforts and luxuries, 
which his independent fortune could have purchased at home. 

What broad lands and unlimited boundaries would have 
been those of New England, had she held fast to the courses 
and distances allowed by the patent of king James to the Ply- 
mouth Company of London. Think of a country ranging 
from sea to sea, between the latitudes of 40° and 48° ! Contem- 
plate its vastness on the map, covering from east to west, one- 
fifth of the circumference of the globe! Ah! had that immense 
region descended to us, then, indeed, we might have assumed 
the name and rank of a nation; the nation of New England! 
Or perhaps better, as we are sometimes playfully called, the 
universal Yankee nation! 

This liberal grant would have included the whole of New 
England, all New York, about half of Pennsylvania, two- 
thirds of New Jersey and Ohio; one-half of Indiana and Illi- 
nois; the whole of Michigan, Lake Huron, and the whole 
territory of the United States westward of them, on both sides 



22 

of the Rocky Mountains, and a considerable portion of North 
Mexico, up to Nootka Sound on the Pacific Ocean. 

Here was indeed, elbow-room and to spare, for the cockney 
grantees; who, however, knew as little about the geography of 
their grant, as they did about settling and governing it; and 
therefore, gave the king back his present. 

Although the Yankees were thus deprived of that extensive 
grant, and are geographically restricted to narrow limits, yet 
have they long since burst their contracted bounds, and planted 
themselves, in nearly all the places designated by James' pa- 
tent, as among the master spirits of the dwellers therein. 

The fleet that brought out Winthrop and fifteen hundred 
emigrants, consisted of seventeen sail. In it were merchants, 
husbandmen, and artificers, all coming into banishment for 
conscience sake. Charlestown was made their head-quarters, 
and a church established there. Opposite to that place stood 
the three hills, which caused them to name the Peninsula 
which Boston now covers, Tremont. Not finding fresh wa- 
ter at Charlestown, many removed to Tremont, where there 
was a copious fountain. The Peninsula was inhabited by 
only one white man, the Rev. William Blackstone. It was 
called by the Indians, Shaivmut, and by the neighbouring 
settlers, as I have already said, Trimountain, or Tremont. The 
Indian word has reference to the spring, and means, abundant 
good water. The three hills were, I think, Copps hill, Fort 
hill, and Beacon hill. They stood triangularly, and about 
equidistant. The beautiful and classic name of Tremont, was 
changed to that of Boston, by a vote of the court in 1630, in 
compliment to the Rev. John Cotton, who had been a minis- 
ter at Boston in Lincolnshire. 

Mr. Blackstone claimed the whole Peninsula, because he 
w^as the first white man who had slept there. He, however, 
exercised towards the new comers, a liberal hospitality, and 
set the example of that social spirit, which has steadily kept 
pace with the growth of the town; where, from that day to 
this, every friendly stranger has found a welcome table and 
a ready chair. His right, as first occupant, was acknowledged, 



23 

and he received subsequently thirty pounds for the fee simple 
of the whole ground on which Boston stands. The first start 
of the Metropolis was full of suffering, sickness, and starva- 
tion, which sent many to the grave. So low had Boston sunk 
for a time, that it was nicknamed Loston. The poor, obliged 
to live in tents and temporary hovels, were afflicted in the 
midst of a severe winter, with scurvy and other distempers. 
They had little or no bread; nothing, indeed, but a small pro- 
vision of shell fish, nuts and acorns. The last batch of bread 
was in the governor's oven, when they were relieved by the 
arrival of a ship from England. The ground on which the 
fair city of Boston is built, was then an unsightly marsh, dot- 
ted here and there, with a few hillocks, and open on three 
sides to the inroad of the waters of the ocean. Behold the 
change! Now, that element, made subservient to an extended 
commerce, is restrained from encroachment by piers and 
quays of solid construction; while the morass has disappeared, 
to make room for streets and avenues, thronged with the busy 
descendants of Winthrop and his companions, moving amid 
richly embellished dwellings, in which are combined the con- 
veniences and beauties of architecture; while in every direc- 
tion are spread in high exuberance, the products of the arts, 
of science, of literature, with specimens of the habitual dili- 
gence of the New Englandman, from the coarsest article of 
traffic, to the wants of a community in the utmost state of re- 
finement. Such is modern Boston! Boston! that spot so 
honoured by all New England, and so dear to its sons! 

Governor Winthrop, and the greater portion of the colo- 
nists, having thus established themselves in Boston, undertook 
as their first labour, and a labour of love it was to him and 
them, the erection of a house of worship. In August, 1632, a 
building was commenced, on the south side of State street. It 
wasahumble structure, with athatched roof and mud walls. The 
first question proposed at the very first court of assistants, was, 
" Hoiu shall the Ministers be maintuined?^^ An answer 
was promptly given. It was ordered that houses for their 
residence be built, with all convenient speed, at the public 



24 

charge, and suitable salaries established. Twenty pounds a 
year was thought sufficient for a single man, and thirty for a 
man with a family. 

Deeply embued with piety, and leading a life of unbounded 
devotion to religion, they not only built a place of worship, 
and provided for regular service therein, but they one and 
all decreed the superior authority of the spiritual over the 
civil power. The church came first, then came the governor 
and his courts. It was a theocracy they aimed at; to create a 
community, which should be itself a church, governed by the 
laws of Jesus! A sublime purpose, which none but pure 
hearts could have conceived; but which human imperfection 
may never realize. Nevertheless, the fruits of efforts directed 
to that end, produced a grade of morality, order, education 
and religion, of great and deserved praise. They adopted as 
the basis of their civil code, the laws of Moses: extending 
their moral equity, so as to take in the whole judicial law; and 
thus punish crimes, not by the laws of England, but by those 
of the Pentateuch; making idolatry, blasphemy, manstealing, 
adultery, and some other offences capital, which are not so by 
the laws of England. It was a bloody code, rigidly carried 
out for many years, and led to sanguinary executions in their 
after history. They and their immediate successors stand 
reproached with cruelty, in terms of unqualified condemna- 
nation, by the philanthropic judgment of modern times. The 
rigid construction, put by our early ancestors on the Judaic 
code, leaves them liable, X may think, to the imputation in 
some things, of dark prejudice and obstinate bigotry. The 
illustrations which I propose to give presently, will sustain 
that opinion. 

By and by a relaxation took place with many, who, teazed 
by regulations so strict and stiff, became less zealous in reli- 
gious concerns. Yet the church upheld its influence; and so 
preponderating was its power, that it disfranchised all who 
were not members of it. All political profit and authority 
concentrated there. And he who did not make a show of 
piety, lost all participation in the civil government. An un- 



25 

unregenerate individual, or one disconnected with the church, 
was forbidden by law, to be called good man; an epithet of 
courtesy then in use, prefixed to the names of the orthodox. 
In short, they condemned all for heretics, who durst oppose 
them. They went further; they assumed one of the chief at- 
tributes of sovereignty, and as early as 1652, passed a law, 
authorizing the coining of money, which was high treason by 
the laws of England. Yet, with the New England spirit of 
independence, she continued to circulate metallic money of 
her own making, for more than one hundred years. Some of 
the pine-tree shillings of 1652 ijiaj'be seen in the cabinets of 
collectors. Massachusetts was^tno' first/if ifti the ^itfir state S 
after the peace of 1783, that estaolished a mint, from which 
she sent forth copper coin, until the creation of the national mint. 

Some other political movements manifested impatience 
under European dependence. The two colonies of Hartford 
and New Haven had virtually proclaimed themselves inde- 
pendent in their code of unpublished laws. A historian of 
Connecticut gives the following item as a constitutional pro- 
vision. " The governor and magistrates, convened in general 
assembly, are the supreme power, under God, of this indepen- 
dent dominion: and from the determination of the assembly, 
no appeal shall be made." 

Some pains have been taken to disprove the claim to repub- 
licanism, set up by the historians of New England, for their 
forefathei'S. There is not space here to vindicate that claim. 
A writer in Philadelphia, of great ability,* has discussed the 
subject in considerable detail, before the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, and admits that although they were not demo- 
crats, when swayed by church government, yet were they not 
monarchists. The juste milieu, the true medium, is conser- 
vative republicanism. And that was the essence and spirit of 
their political creed. Roger Williams, who repudiated church 
government, and all restraint upon conscience, derived by the 
aid of Sir Henry Vane, the charter of the colony he founded, 

* Job R. Tyson, Esq. 



26 

from a republican or anti-royal parliament; and held that 
" kings and magistrates must be considered invested with no 
more power than the people betrust them with." And again, 
" the sovereign power of all civil authority is founded in the 
consent of the peopled No divine right; no " Dieu et mon 
droit^'' is admitted either by him, or the Connecticut colo- 
nies. While in Massachusetts the civil liberty of the inhabi- 
tants were by law secured not only in the essential right of 
petition, but with it was associated the privilege of enforcing 
it by speech. What can be broader than the law of 1672, 
entitled " common liberties of Massachusetts," in which is 
this ppinrisionj^every man \v[iet1lier inhabitant or foreigner, 
free or not free, shall have liberty to come to any public court, 
council or town meeting, and either by speech or writing, to 
move any lawful, seasonable or material question, or to pre- 
sent any necessary motion, complaint, petition, bill, or informa- 
tion, whereof that meeting hath proper cognizance." 

The royal charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, 
granted, no doubt, to suit the political spirit and feelings of 
the people who were to be ruled by them, were so essentially 
republican, that they continued long after the separation from 
Great Britain, to be the instruments of governments highly 
democratic. 

To confute all this, the Address of Massachusetts to Charles 
II. on his restoration, dated August 7, 1661, is adduced. But 
the position of the colony, then only about thirty years old, 
should be considered. The' colonists had sided most heartily 
with the Protector, and received many favours from him and 
his parliaments, and had now to make their peace with 
Charles. It was an act of prudence, and even of necessity, 
weak as they were, to address him in soothing terms. But 
Governor Endicott writes like a base sycophant, and either 
spoke in irony, or grossly misrepresented the opinions of the 
Ronndheads of New England. Could the people, although 
alarmed at the ti'iumphant return of Charles, sanction such ab- 
ject language as is used thus by Endicott? " Witness our ap- 
proach unto the best of kings, who to other titles of royalty, 
common to him with other gods amongst men." "We 



27 

sought your favour by presenting to a compassionate eye that 
bottle full of tears, shed by us. Here also we acknowledge 
the efficacy of regal influence to qualify these salt waters;" 
" our churches sitting in sackcloth." " Tiience we call you 
Lord, hence a Saviour;" and much more in this fulsome strain 
that would seem in the mouth of a New Enjilandman more 
like words of mockery, than serious supplication. 

We may presume that there was an absence of partiality for 
royalty, from the extraordinary circumstance, that in all New 
England, there are no regal names displayed. There is not a 
single instance of a county being called after a royal personage 
of Great Britain, or a royal title. Whereas, we have Virginia, 
named in compliment to the virgin Queen Elizabeth; and the 
subdivisions of that state exhibiting the counties of King and 
Queen; KingGeorge; King William; Prince Edward; Prince 
George; Prince William; Princess Anne, Sec. And in Mary- 
land, that takes its name from a crowned head, we find Anna- 
polis, Queen Anne county, and many others; while Georgia 
derives its name from one of the Brunswick kings. Even 
New York has her King and Queen counties. But nothing of 
the kind can 1 trace throughout New England. This omis- 
sion must have arisen from an utter indifference, if not from 
an anti-royal, or hostile feeling. 

It must, nevertheless, be owned, as I have fully admitted, 
that the clergy swayed without due restraint, a people willing, 
by their unbounded deference to the church, to submit to any 
extent, and on all occasions to their pastoral government. It 
was the godliness of a whole community, deeply impressed by 
religion, who voluntarily resigned themselves to the control 
of their si)iritual superiors. Thus it was that the clergy even 
went so far as to assume the dispensing power. Mr. Richard 
Salstonstall had vowed to God that he would not leave the 
country whilst the ordinances of God continued there in 
purity. Some years after, his wife lost her health; her phy- 
sician advised a voyage to England. Embarrassed by his 
vow, he applied to the Rev. -Mr. Cotton, not for absolution, 
says the annalist, but to satisfy his doubting conscience. The 



28 

casuist convinced him that the marriage vow was the most 
l)inclino-! Can any promise be paramount to a vow to God? 
Yet tliis decision emanated from the Rev. John Cotton, who 
was considered immaculate, humanly speaking; and it carried 
Mr. and Mrs. Salstonstall to their native land. Other instances 
might be cited, but this is enough. 

Another subject of deep censure, of opprobrious wrong, was 
the persecution and execution for witchcraft. Unhappily, a 
taint of superstition and easy credulity, pervaded New Eng- 
land at this period. Women, withered and grown double 
with age, possessing some smartness of intellect, and espe- 
cially of fretful and irascible tempers, were marked down for 
wicked spirits, using potent spells, capable of conjuring fiends 
and spectres from the bowels of the earth, or the yawning 
deep. Yet, why should we wonder at this mental delusion, 
which led in New England, to the execution of a very few, 
when, in the same age, there were burnt at the stake for witch- 
craft, at Geneva, in three months, one thousand? In all Ger- 
many, many tliousandsl In England, countless executions. 
And as late as the year 1716, Mrs. Hickes, and her daughter, 
nine years of age, were hanged, in England too, for selling 
their souls to the devil, and raising a storm, by pulling off 
stockings and making a lather of soap! This may extenuate 
the folly and cruelty of an occurrence that took place in Bos- 
ton, upon a supposed witch, under the following circum- 
stances. A lady, Mrs. Ann Hibbins, was tried in 1G56. She 
was the widow of a gentleman, who had served in England as 
agent of the colony, and had been several years one of the 
assistants, and a merchant of note. His death and other mis- 
fortunes, soured a temper naturally crabbed, and made her 
turbulent and quarrelsome. She was brought under church 
censure, and rendered so odious to her neighbours, that they 
accused her of witchcraft. The jury brought her in guilty; 
but the magistrates refused to accept the verdict. The 
cause was carried to the general court, where the popular cla- 
mour prevailed against her. And, notwithstanding the absence 
of those cutaneous marks, which were said to designate a witch, 



29 

and the absence too, of puppets and images, which formed part 
of the machinery which they were believed to use in their 
houses, she was condemned and executed!! The principal 
proof against her, was an unfortunate guess which she made, 
that two persons, whom she saw talking in the street, were 
speaking of her. And such turning out to be the fact, that 
guess cost her her life Strange that in a land, where guess- 
ing is now so liberally allowed, it should be cause of death to 
our good mothers of the 17th century! She was permitted to 
dispose of her property; and in a codicil to her will, begged 
that so much respect should be shown to her body, as to have 
it decently interred. 

In the category of reprehensible laws, and in measure full 
as censurable as that I have just considered, are those against 
Quakerism. Passed too in the same year, (1G56,) as if there 
had been an epidemic in the minds and hearts of the people 
every where, operating like a blight upon Christian sympathy 
and love; and infusing in their stead, a spirit of severity — ex- 
cessive severity. At that period some men and women, called 
Quakers, came from England, in a religious fever, approach- 
ing phrensy. They brought with them tracts containing 
their fanatic doctrines; conducted themselves with very unbe- 
coming zeal; and gave great uneasiness to those in authority. 
The women were the chief promoters of disorder, and shame- 
fully immodest in their language and conduct. While the 
men set the laws at defiance, and provoked the judges, by dis- 
regarding the repeated sentence of banishment passed upon 
them. Time after time they were sent out of the colony, but, 
as if delighted with persecution, they returned, to renew in 
terms of insolence and daring, those offences which had caused 
their punishment; until impatient of further forbearance, rigid 
laws were passed; perhaps too sharp and harsh for the present 
day; yet mild considering the spirit and letter of criminal 
statutes, throughout the Christian world, in the 16th and 17th 
centuries. It is by the standard of the countless multitude of 
executions in other countries, (of which those in Massachu- 
setts would not be the dust in the balance,) that our good 



30 

fathers are to be judged and vindicated; yes, vindicated, — ac- 
quitted. It is by tbe influence of religious opinion, as it ope- 
rated under the laws of Christian Europe, where no warning 
by exile, no indulgence, no palliation, would be admitted, 
that their conduct must be tried. There stood the stake, with 
fire and faggot, for heretics, in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Geneva. 
In France, the dreadful day of St. Bartholomew, and revoca- 
tion of the Edict of Nantes. In England, the summary and 
cruel measures of the Tudors and Stuarts. It is by those ex- 
amples abroad, so rigorous, so prompt, so merciless, that pun- 
ishment under the intolerance of our progenitors are to be com- 
pared, tested and determined, and not by the philanthropy of 
modern lenity. 

How different from those wild and irrational beings, are the 
mild and dignified Friends oi the present day! And how 
changed the policy of Massachusetts! changed, as we know, 
and rejoice to know, into the most salutary freedom of thought 
and action. 

But a stop was put to all capital and corporal punishment of 
Quakers, by order of the king, in 1661. The persecution then 
ceased; they were left unmolested, and soon submitting to the 
laws, became what they now are, a moral, friendly, benevo- 
lent, industrious, quiet people. 

Meantime Boston throve apace, and far outstript in popula- 
tion, commerce and the arts, every town in America. Cotton 
Mather says, that the name of Boston is an abridgment of St. 
Botolphistown, and is dcrivdd from it. In the twelve first years 
of its settlement, it is stated by Hutchinson, that 21,200 passen- 
gers arrived there in 298 vessels, at a charge of transportation 
of jE192,000; equal to nearly a million of dollars. It is to be 
noted, in proof of careful seamanship, that only one of those 
vessels was lost. Forty years later, the town had increased so 
much, that it was styled the metropolis of the whole of English 
America; and contained at the dale of the foundation of Phila- 
delphia, ten thousand people. In short, the conduct of its own 
inhabitants, and that of the surrounding colonies, was so exem- 
plary, that in a sermon preached before both houses of parlia- 



31 

ment, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and the 
Assembly of Divines, about the middle of the 17th century, 
or 1660, there is this passage : 

" I have lived in a country for seven years," said the 
preacher, " where during that time, I never saw a beggar, nor 
heard an oath, nor looked upon a drunkard. Shall I tell you 
where that Utopia was?" " 'Twas New England!" 

Notwithstanding imputed witchcraft and obtrusive, spurious 
Quakerism, the country was highly prosperous. Commerce 
flourished, agriculture had rapidly changed the wilderness into 
cultivated land; the laws, with few exceptions, were good 
and ably administered; and the people were happy. Massa- 
chusetts became like a hive, overstocked with bees, which 
needed, says a contemporary, an early swarming. 

The fame of Connecticut, or Long river, as that Indian name 
imports, had reached them, and set the new swarm in motion. 
" Reader," says the quaint Mather, " come with me now, to 
behold some worthy and learned, and genteel persons, going 
to be burned alive, on the banks of the Connecticut, having 
been first slain, by the ecclesiastical impositions and persecu- 
tions of Europe." Churches were planted at Hartford, Weth- 
ersfield, and Springfield, in 1635. These with others, (except 
Springfield, which was in Massachusetts,) formed a separate 
colony. But I have not space for the account of its growth, 
and subsequent negotiations with the Lords Say and Brook, 
and the incorporation of the town of Saybrook into their 
government. Neither can I stop to say much of New Haven, 
under Davenport and Eaton. A few passing remarks on that 
colony will be made, however, before I close. 

Here were, then, the four colonies of Plymouth, Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, and New Haven, all growing fast in popu- 
lation, and tending to enlarge the British empire, and give a 
wide range in time to come, to the wholesome influence of 
the Protestant reformed religion. The devout people, who 
spread themselves over this American corner of the world, 
inhabiting in the cold climate of New England, a rather infer- 
tile soil, could never, without good laws and religious disci- 



32 

pline, have brought themselves into consideration, strength and 
wealth, equal to the other English colonies, where climate, 
soil, and other inviting circumstances, exist in a ver}'- superior 
degree to their own. 

The Puritans were stigmatized in England, as an ignorant 
sect, of mean origin, and disinclined to learning. Imputations 
entirely false, and refuted by the liberal acquirements of their 
clergy, and the early measures taken in their new home, to 
open schools, and provide at the public cost, a college for 
sacred and secular instruction; to establish a system co-exten- 
sive with the country, which, starting with the horn-book, in 
the meanest hamlet, enlarged itself, according to the wants of 
society, until it reached at Cambridge and New Haven, the 
utmost refinement in literature, science, and the liberal arts. 

Only eight years after the settlement of Boston, (1636,) it 
was ordered, by the general court, that four hundred pounds 
be granted as a beginning for a college. Various endowments 
followed, particularly from John Harvard, whose name it took; 
and fi-om whose walls have come forth a multitude of bril- 
liant and pious scholars. 

A sketch of New England would be imperfect without 
some notice of Roger Williams; one of its shining stars of the 
first magnitude; a man of strong, searching, fearless mind, and 
a never flinching friend of the poor red man. He loved the 
sons of the forest. " His soul's desire," he said, '• was to do 
the natives good." He studied their language, and secured 
their confidence. Yet, the* aboriginals were then, what they 
have continued to be down to our time, a dirty, indolent race. 
" God was pleased to give me," says that gentleman, " a pain- 
ful, patient spirit, to lodge with them in their filthy, smoky 
holes, to gain their tongue." 

But that upright man raised a question of momentous im- 
portance; which was no less than doubting the right of King 
James, to give away a country, for which he had never paid. 

Had the natives a right to hold possession of their bound- 
less hunting grounds? 

Vattel says, " God has given the earth to the human race ; 



33 

and every man is entitled to a portion of its surface, sufficient 
for the comfortable support of himself and family. It follows, 
that no man has a right to claim for himself a vast tract of 
forest, because he chooses to subsist by hunting. This tract 
would furnish subsistence for many others. Those others, if 
their necessity required, would have a right to claim their 
share, and to enforce their claim." 

But the fundamental principle of civilized society, esta- 
blishes the right of possession to any extent, and the law pro- 
tects him therein. The hunter, who has his ten thousand acres 
taken from him, because he does not raise bread from them, 
may well ask, by what superior right a European nobleman 
appropriates to himself a vast space for parks and fish ponds? 

The Spaniards colonized under grants from the Pope, while 
the Kings of England, in the 16th century, placed their right 
upon the superior claims, which Christians possess over Infi- 
dels. But this sophistry did not satisfy Mr. Williams. He 
contended that it was an unjust pretension, to set up sove- 
reignty over a country, merely on the ground of discovery, or 
of the barbarous and wandering character of its inhabitants. 
The fact that James' vessels had sailed along the coast of the 
country of Massasoit, gave that king no more title to the 
land, than the passage of one of the Indian canoes, up the 
Thames, would have transferred London to the American 
chief. He insisted upon it, that it was a gross sin for a Chris- 
tian king to invest his subjects with a right, by virtue of his 
Christianity, to take and give away the lands and countries 
of other men. 

These sentiments had great weight with the colonists, and 
led to the establishment of a principle of justice, from which 
they never deviated, of giving a price, satisfactory to the In- 
dians, for all, all the land, they had occasion from time to time 
to occupy. 

To be sure the prices paid by the Pilgrims were not ex- 
travagant. A square mile of land was bought for a blanket, a 
jack knife, a flask of powder, and perhaps a bottle of strong 
water. The knife was of more use to the Indian, and the blanket 

£ 



34 

of more comfort, than a fragment of his illimitable wilder- 
ness. 

The whole island of Rhode Island, was bought for forty 
fathoms of white beads; and ten coats and twenty hoes to the 
resident Indians, in order to obtain immediate possession; the 
purchase in money being, perhaps, less than one hundred 
dollars. The whole island of Manhattan, on which the city 
of New York stands, was purchased of the aboriginals, by the 
Dutch in 1636, for sixty guilders, or about twenty-four dollars; 
while the plot of Boston, as we have seen, cost about eighty 
dollars! 

" It denotes a strange dearth of enemies, 
When men seek foes among themselves." 

So it was with Mr. Williams, during his pastoral charge of 
a congregation at Salem. It is amusing to consider the accu- 
sations brought against him by his enemies. The first was, 
that he insisted in his sermons, on the use of veils, by females, 
in religious assemblies. In March, 1633, at a lecture at Bos- 
ton, a question was propounded about veils. Mr. Cotton said 
that where, by the custom of the place, they were not a sign 
of the woman's subjection, they were not commanded by the 
apostles; and the women, not finding sufficient foundation in 
the Scriptures for concealment, laid their veils aside, and 
never appeared with them afterwards; so that our grand- 
mothers went to their devotions, with their fair and honest 
faces uncovered; but not long after, the dress of the ladies 
was regulated by legislative interference. The general court 
directed that, no garment shall be made with short sleeves; 
and such females as have garments with short sleeves, shall 
not wear them, unless they cover the arm to the wrist. And 
hereafter, no person wliatever, shall make any garment for 
women, with sleeves more than twenty-two and a half inches 
wide. Neither did their husbands and brothers escape sump- 
tuary regulation. Vehement preaching shook the pulpit, 
against wigs. Not political whigs, but good warm hair wigs. 
They were denounced by President Chauncy, and Rev. John 
Elliot; while the magistrates signed a grave protest, against 



35 

the custom among men, of wearing long hair. They request- 
ed the clergy to associate that offence with their pulpit con- 
demnation of wigs. " That long hair coiffure," they said, 
" was a thing uncivil and unmanly, whereb}^ men do deform 
themselves, and offend sober and modest people, and do cor- 
rupt good manners." It would be curious to speculate upon 
the probable fate, among them, of a full pattern of a modern 
bearded chin, " perfectly fashioned,dike the husk of a chest- 
nut!" 

The second charge against Mr. Williams was, that his 
preaching had led to the cutting the cross out of the military 
colours. The cross of St. George was stigmatised as a relic 
of antichristian superstition. The militia, having their banners 
thus mutilated, refused to march. But the train bands had to 
submit, and carry their colours without the cross, while the 
flags of vessels, and the forts at the castle, kept it in. In the 
prevailing spirit of reform, the calendar was revised; and for 
fifty years the heathen names of Mars, Juno, Julius and Au- 
gustus, were repudiated, and the months counted as the Qua- 
kers do now, by calling them first, second, &c. 

But the breach between the Congregational clergy and 
Williams was too wide to be forgotten or forgiven; so that he 
retired from Massachusetts, with his family of girls, christen- 
ed according to the fashion of those days, Joy, Recompense, 
Pity, and Freedom. He took with him, likewise, the true 
principle of government, which will secure to his memory 
lasting fame, namely, that the civil power has no jurisdic- 
tion over the conscience. A doctrine sound and true; drawn 
from the Scriptures and taught by reason; yet rejected by all 
the churches in Massachusetts, where they had become so 
intolerant that they called toleration a crime! And cried from 
all their pulpits that their aim was to extirpate every one who 
thought differently from themselves. Cromwell's church in 
England and Scotland had remonstrated against the introduc- 
tion or admissibility of "sinful and ungodly toleration, in 
matters of religion." In their official papers they solemnly 
declared that they detested and abhorred toleration. Tolera- 



36 

tion, said one of their preachers, is the grand work of the devil; 
it is his masterpiece, and chief engine, to uphold his tottering 
kingfloin. He that is willing, says another, to tolerate any 
religion besides his own, either doubts of his own, or is not 
sincere in it. A third was so opposed to toleration, that when 
he died, a copy of verses was found in his pocket, written 
with his own hand, of which the two following lines made a 
part: 

" Let men of God in court and cliurches watch, 
O'er such as do a toleration hatcli." 

It was the glory of Roger Williams to assume a different 
and a wiser course. And by God's providence he was des- 
tined to become the protector and advocate, in a colony of his 
own, of doctrines in religion liberal, and in politics free. 
Yes, free, but under wholesome restraint. His beautiful let- 
ter, disavowing any sanction to licentiousness, in the tolera- 
tion of liberty of conscience, is too long for insertion. I 
regret it, because it is rhetorically illustrated, and logically 
argued. With him the right of conscience was always asso- 
ciated with civil obedience. 

Connected with this subject and with the notice of Mr. 
Williams, is the fate of Miantinomo, his favourite Indian. 
Mi-an-ti-no-mo! What euphony in each syllable, separate 
and combined! He was the most powerful chief of his day; 
a Narraganset distinguished for valour, and fidelity to the 
colonists. By his aid the Pequods were overthrown. In 
union with his uncle, the great sachem Canonicus, he exer- 
cised the most liberal hospitality towards the first settlers; 
and they both continued for a long period to give to the white 
men the aid of friends and benefactors. Subsequently, when 
Mr. Williams was in England, Miantinomo made war with 
a thousand warriors, upon the Mohegans, whose supreme chief 
was Uncus, the hero of the Novelist. He was defeated and 
captured. Uncas carried liim prisoner to Hartford. There, 
in captivity, and in the absence of his powerful protector, he 
was hastily condemned by an ecclesiastical commission, while 



37 

the civil authority hesitated to pronounce him guilty. It is 
not for uSj at this distant day, to pass judgment on the decision 
of the clergy. Dangers and conspiracies, unknown to us, may 
have influenced them. He was delivered up to Uncas for 
slaughter, as a heathen conspirator against the people of God, 
and deserving the fate of Agag. And Uncas, the last of the 
Mohegans, practised upon him in his own territories, that 
savage vengeance that would not have "abated a single groan," 
could Miantinomo have been willing to utter one. This was 
the end of the great and constant friend of the colony of Rhode 
Island. 

" What can we pay thee, Miantinomo, for thy noble usage, 
but grateful praise?" 

Several women of high birth and great piety and virtue, 
manifested courage and constancy, in sacrificing every thing 
at home, in order to follow their husbands to this new land. 
Among these may be selected for admiration and praise, two 
of the daughters of the Countess of Lincoln, Susan and Ar- 
bella. The lady Arbella, dying six weeks after her arrival at 
Salem, was said to have come from a paradise of plenty and 
pleasure, into a wilderness of wants, and to have taken New- 
England in her way to heaven. Her husband survived her 
only a month: 

" He tried 

To live without her, liked it not, and died." 

But one of stronger nerves and masculine stamina, named 
Hutchinson, who had been some time in this country from 
England, became an object of great notoriety; she had induced 
many of the women of Boston to assert their independence in 
matters of conscience, and constituted herself their leader and 
priestess. Possessed of a brave spirit, and considerable intel- 
lectual power, she was fond of displaying them. More than 
sixty females were persuaded by her eloquence, to adopt new 
subtleties and refinements on the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, 
and the connexion between sanctification and justification. 
This threw the colony into a state of consternation. Minis- 



38 

t^rs hurried up to Boston from all quarters, when a long dis- 
cussion took place, which, after three weeks dehate, ended in 
the banishment of Mrs. Hutchinson. It was decided, more- 
over, that " though women might meet (some few) together, 
to pray and edify one another; yet such a number as usually 
met, amounting to sixty, or more, with one woman taking 
upon herself the whole exercise, was disorderly and without 
rule." The speech of women was thus checked; and very 
soon after, they, as well as the men, were placed under what 
in modern parlance would be called gag-law, by being prohi- 
bited, under severe penalty, from speaking evil of judges or 
magistrates. Truly those good puritans w^ere somewhat ultra 
in their mode of government! Non-conformity, which they 
claimed as a privilege in old England, was not permitted in 
thought, speech, or deed in New England. Their fiat was: 
" Do as we do, think as we do, or march with quick step be- 
yond the frontier; and if you return, beware of the stocks, and 
perhaps the gallows." Such illibcrality is hardly credible, 
and seems to deviate from the true temper of Christian for- 
bearance. 

Rhode Island, in string contrast, adopted the following in 
its charter: — 

"All men may walk as their consciences persuade them: 
every one in the name of his God. And let the lambs of the 
Most High walk in this colony without molestation, in the 
name of Jehovah, their God, for ever and ever." 

Thus the rigour in Massachusetts reacted in Rhode Island, 
and produced an unhealthy relaxation and neglect of religion; 
so much so, that a writer at a later period says, that not one- 
third of the latter colony was baptized. 

It must be said in extenuation, that our fathers were beset 
by danger. On all sides lay powerful and hostile tribes of 
savages: union in its strictest bonds became therefore neces- 
sary; and it was found expedient to consider all who did not 
fully sympathize with them, as being against them. Such, in- 
deed, was thought to be an indispensable act of state policy. 
England was a prey to civil war; and Cromwell, their friend. 



39 

was not yet master of the realm : neither were they weaned 
from the hifluence of the severe Judaic code; and at this very 
juncture, the exiled WilHams stirred them up to a still hotter 
temperature, by sending among them u pamphlet, entitled, 
" The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, 
discussed in a Conference between Tiuth and Peace." In an- 
swer to which. Rev. Mr. Cotton issued "The Bloody Tenet 
washed, and made white in the Blood of the Lamb." A re- 
joinder soon appeared, inscribed " The Bloody Tenet yet more 
Bloody by Mr. Cotton's Endeavour to wash it white." 
Here are types of the times, which show the affected and 
punning humour of pamphleteers, two hundred years ago. 
It was a sample of sorrowful resentment in two learned En- 
glishmen, inhabiting a wilderness at the end of the world. 

In 1645, just two centuries past, we may gather the relative 
strength of the four colonies, combined for mutual defence, 
by the quotas assigned to each, when projecting a war against 
the Mohegans. The whole number of men ordered out was 
three hundred. Massachusetts was rated at one hundred and 
ninety; Plymouth at fort}'; Connecticut at forty; and New 
Haven at thirty. Uncas, the Mohegan chief, came to Boston, 
to turn the gathering storm from his tribe; and with Indian 
eloquence cried for mercy, concluding his speech in the style 
of a Castilian Spaniard. " This heart," said he, laying his 
hand upon his breast, " is not mine, but yours. Command 
me any difficult service, and I will do it. I have no men, for 
they are all yours; no Indian who speaks against the English, 
will I ever more believe." 

A glance, the most transient, cannot be taken of the history 
of New England, without noticing Philip's war, (King Phi- 
lip,) which occured in 1676, and vv^as undertaken by the sa- 
vages with the design of exterminating the English. It was 
a desperate effort on both sides, and attended with great cala- 
mity. At the end of two years it was finished by the death 
of Philip, and the extinction of his tribe; while on the part 
of the colonics, six hundred men were killed, thirteen towns 
destroyed, and six hundred dwelling houses burnt. In 



40 

this fearful struggle, the parent country gave no aid. The 
people were left to defend themselves, being counted by the 
English as voluntary exiles. This neglect continued until 
the country,- by its riches, excited their cupidity, and then 
they obtruded upon it their governmental regulations. 

I ask your attention for a moment, to the enactment and 
enforcement at New Haven, of a code called the hhie-laivs. 
Although those ordinances were never officially published, 
yet was a large community governed by them. They do not 
appear to be more severe than those of Massachusetts and 
Plymouth. In truth, they emanated from the same source: 
many being based on the ten commandments, carried out to 
the letter; and the sabbath was observed with extraordinary 
strictness, according to the decalogue. 

In order to the full performance of the fourth command- 
ment, it was enacted, that no one should run on the sabbath, 
or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, except reverently to and 
from meeting. 

No one should travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep 
house, cut hair, or shave, on the sabbath. 

No woman shall kiss her child on the sabbath or fast day. 

No one shall read the Common i)rayer-book, keep Christmas 
or Saint's day, make minced pies, dance, play cards, or play 
on any instrument of music, except the drum, trumpet and 
Je«^'*-harp. 

No person under 20 years of age, nor any other, who had 
not already accustomed himself to the use of tobacco, shall 
take any, until he has obtained a certificate, from under the 
hand of an approved physician, that it was useful for him. All 
others who had addicted themselves to the use of it, are pro- 
hibited from taking it, in any company, whether at their 
labours or in travelling, and then, not more than once a day, 
upon pain of a fine of six-pence for every such offence ; and 
one substantial witness shall be suilicient proof. 

Among those laws, are many, which, with the one just cited, 
qualifying the use of that pernicious weed, tobacco, might be 
advantageously adopted at this day. These, with the laws of 



41 

New England in general, at that period, are more cnrious in 
their phraseology, than wrong in principle; and we must ever 
bear in mind, that they emanated from men, whose ardent 
souls, whether labouring for religioner liberty; whether plant- 
ing colleges or schools amid a savage foe ; whether toiling for 
subsistence on the rich banks of the Connecticut, the barren hills 
of Plymouth, or more generous soil of Massachusetts and the 
Islands of Narraganset, can never have their history recorded 
by us, their descendants, without our pen running into enthu- 
siasm. Their Christian courage, sacrifice of country, intense 
suffering, patient forbearance, unwearied labour and humble 
carriage, must awaken our strongest filial love, and lead us to 
exclaim, in the words of one who has deeply studied them:* — 
"No! never — Almighty God — never may the progeny from 
such a stock, degenerate from the virtues of their sires!" 

But it is time to draw to a conclusion. And this I desijrn 
to do, by briefly noticing some of our countrymen, who have 
distinguished themselves, eminently, in times, immediately 
preceding our own, and then saying a word or two of the 
character of the living race. 

In reference to the first, I find at hand, taken from a late 
periodical, an enumeration of New England men in the British 
Colonies. Bui the list is so long that I forbear to copy it. 
They were more than thirty, educated at our own colleges, and 
all most highly gifted. To those may be added Sir William 
Phips, the stock from which sprang the house of Mulgrave, 
Copley, Lord Lyndhurst, Sir Isaac Coffin, Count Rumford, 
Admiral Hallowell, and many others, who were proud of call- 
ing themselves Boston Boys, and sons of New England. But 
what of the living Yankee of 1844? He, whose compatriots, 
counting the stationary and ambulatory, now number two mil- 
lions five hundred thousand; springing chiefly from those 
parent stocks, whose history we are met to commemorate. 
Here is a motto that will suit him: — "It is good for him to be 
employed. Jiclion is really the life^ business and rest of his 

' Honoiirahle Jolin Quincy Adams. 



42 

mind." Casl anchor where he will, no ground tackle will hold 
him, if there be not occupation. He must keep moving, in 
search of a port, with profitable employment in it. And no 
rest can be found on fortune's restless wheel, until a prize be 
drawn, rich enough to reward his industry. Yet order and 
piety are, generally speaking, co-operating influences, in all 
his occupations, whether at home or abroad. It is they that 
accompany him in his industry and enterprise; it is they that 
stimulate his good-fellowship, methodical training of his family, 
his store and his workshop. Early accustomed to sustain the 
house of worship and the schools, the tax is met with alacrity, 
the pastor is looked up to with veneration. His liberal con- 
tributions for Missionary purposes, have their source in the 
hereditary love of religion and its handmaid, good order. It 
is those that so deeply inspire the multitudes of both sexes, 
with the willingness to bear the sacred word to any country, 
any climate!! 

The Spaniard is not more truly designated by his grave de- 
portment, the Frenchman by his merry temper, than the New- 
Englandman by his habit of thrift, his shrewdness, discretion, 
smartness in business, and quick perception of the road to 
profit. Turning with ease from an unsuccessful to a more pro- 
mising pursuit, hecan practice versatility in ever)- calling of life. 
Not from inconstancy, or a love of change, but for the sake of 
knowing many things, so that he may adopt the best, and abide 
by it. When plougliing on land seems uncongenial, he turns to 
ploughing the ocean, or pre'pares himself for a learned profes- 
sion; and, anon, becomes radiant in the pulpit, or conspicuous 
at the bar. Ofttimes a single avocation will not satisfy him, 
and then we see him in the exercise of one for this period of 
the year, and another for that. Many irons in the fire, the 
proverb notwithstanding, do not ruin him; his habit of order 
prepares for them alj. 

The parent stock bequeathed to him a spirit of enterprise, 
tempered by prudence, intelligence and s) stem. In that stock 
was the ij^erm of Yankeeism, now developed in their descen- 
dants. Cromwell saw it in his fellow-Puritaus, and told Roger 



43 

Williams, just after he had subdued the Irish, that he would 
provide generously for all the New England Colonists, if they 
would leave America, and settle in Ireland. They preferred, 
however, the mighty field, in which their courage and inde- 
pendence had placed them. 

I do not deny that the love of money is the chief stimulant 
with a majority. It is that which exercises his ingenuity, and 
fills the patent office. It is that which carries him from the 
Hyperborean regions of both poles, through all the circles of the 
earth, and keeps him busy in every latitude. But when he 
has acquired riches, who more munificent in its distribution? 
Behold his princely gifts to colleges, hospitals, and every in- 
stitution dependent upon benevolence, and liberal acts of 
charity! Sometimes "diffusing his benevolence around," in 
secret, denying to those he benefits, his name. 

With the desire in all to rise to distinction and obtain a 
competency, many are led into projects of more or less hazard. 
And as we claim to be a religious people, without assuming 
to be a community of saints, some of our brethren, while in 
jjursuit of the golden fleece, may, by errors of conduct, as well 
as misfortunes in business, fall into poverty. Then it is our 
duty and our delight to exercise towards such, that first born 
virtue of religion — charity! For the benevolent purpose of 
aiding those who are destitute in Philadelphia, we are associa- 
ted; and we stand ready, according to our means, to dry up 
the tear of the wanderer, who may claim kindred with us. 

It may be inferred from the severity of some of the colo- 
nial laws, that those who lived under them were sad and 
gloomy; yet, if we may judge from contemporaneous authors, 
nothing could be less true. Cotton Mather's pages, for ex- 
ample, abound in merriment, and play upon words for mirth's 
sake. At any rate, nothing like constitutional dejection, or 
depressed spirits, can be discovered in their descendants, as a 
communit}-; for they are avouched abroad and at home, to be 
cheerful, contented and happy, gifted with fun to raise a 
laugh, and a hearty one, when in friendly converse, and to 
prolong convivial pleasure with rational gaiety. 



44 

The sons of New England have no heaviness of heart, no 
habitual melancholy; the truth of this, they mean to test on 
Monday, when our celebration will be consummated, under 
Providence, by a feast of reason for the teetotaller, and a flow 
of social joy, with a moderate draught from the loine vault, 
for the bacchanalian. 



